This invention relates to security management of electronic product code information. Electronic Product Codes (EPC) is a family of coding schemes for RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) tags. The EPC is designed to meet the needs of various industries, while guaranteeing the uniqueness for all EPC-compliant tags. All EPC numbers contain a header identifying the encoding scheme that has been used. This in turn dictates the length, type and structure of the EPC. EPC coding schemes typically contain a serial number which can be used to uniquely identify a single object. For example, a 96-bit EPC number allows approximately 1.3×1016 items to be coded annually, roughly corresponding to the number of grains of rice consumed globally each year.
The RFID and EPC technologies provide the basis for new traceability applications for products to emerge everywhere. Parties that want to share their data to create increased business value need new mechanisms for querying traceable data. In addition to business considerations, companies are more likely to share their data if the services infrastructure is scalable, secure and easy to use.
The EPCglobal Network architecture describes components and interfaces for EPC-related information exchange between servers that contain information about items identified by EPC numbers. The servers, typically known as EPCISs (EPC Information Services), which are linked through a set of network services, store relevant product information related to specific EPC numbers. Each EPCIS typically contains the following information for each EPC number: a read time at which an RFID reader registered the EPC, a capture time at which the EPCIS registered the read EPC, a location of the reader, an action (typically “observe”), and several optional product-specific attributes. For example, an RFID reader may also register the temperature or radioactivity of an item. The EPCIS provides an interface for executing ad-hoc queries as well as standing queries that deliver new results periodically. The standardization of this interface encourages the marketplace to provide vendor-specific implementations, which increase the scope of use of the EPCglobal Network services.
Many of the most valuable use cases for RFID require information exchange between companies. However, gathering cross-company supply chain data can be expensive, time-consuming and unrealizable given security concerns. Thus, there is a need for improvements to the EPCglobal Network architecture that addresses these issues.